


"Extremis" S10.6: Decoding Doctor Who Season 10 Episodes

by TardisGirlLoveStory



Series: Season 10 Doctor Who [7]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Analysis, F/M, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 01:11:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11002860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisGirlLoveStory/pseuds/TardisGirlLoveStory
Summary: This is the continuing work of a multi-chapter handbook and meta analysis for Season 10 of BBC's Doctor Who.  While it's not absolutely necessary to read the previous documents, I do build on the concepts and metaphors explained previously.Season 10 spoiler warnings





	1. Don’t Trust the Text: Double Fake Out

**Author's Note:**

> **** Spoiler warning. ****
> 
> Check out my [meta archive on Tumblr](http://tardisgirlepic.tumblr.com/meta-archive) for images

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter examines what the subtext at the opening of the episode says; what the foreshadowing from a 10th Doctor episodes says; what the subtext from the simulation part says; and more...
> 
> Season 10 spoiler warnings

[[For images, see my tumblr chapter]](http://tardisgirlepic.tumblr.com/post/161082596653/ch-1-extremis-analysis-doctor-who-s106-dont/)

##  **Don’t Trust Anything You See – Massive Double Fake Out**

In the very first chapter of _Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who,_ I gave the advice not to trust anything you see in DW.  I’m going to repeat that caveat again here.  What you think you see is not necessarily true.  There is so much more going on in “Extremis” than the text suggests.

From the very start of the episode, the subtext says don’t trust everything we are seeing.  With Missy and the Vault, there is an inverse reflection of the sun on the water (red arrow), shown below, so things are upside-down from how they look.  And things are distorted because of the distorted reflection, which is also disjointed.  This suggests there may be a lot more time involved in the whole Vault thing than what it appears.  In fact, to contribute to this disjoint nature, the scenes with Missy were dispersed throughout the episode.  


We never see Missy going into the Vault.  How do the Doctor and Nardole even get the Vault, which is in the middle of the lake, to the university building?  Please note that I do believe she is in there, but the subtext suggests it’s not that simple.  Also, there are huge gaps of time here.  Over many years, I’ve come to trust the subtext over what we think we see.

Did you find it odd that Nardole feeds the Doctor lines like an actor or like someone who has forgotten what they stand for?  River is one of the architects of this rescue plan, so Nardole doing River’s bidding isn’t surprising.  Besides, Nardole is also a mirror of the Doctor.  Interestingly, the Doctor is being programmed here.  My question is: what does it mean about the realness of this Doctor?   
This type of situation in the subtext comes up a lot.  In these cases, I assume that the main events happened at some point, however, not quite the way they appear.  I trust the subtext.

Don’t trust the computer simulation part, either, unless you are reading the subtext.  I’ll get to that in a few minutes, but lets look at “The Next Doctor” first to see how it informs us.

##  **Massive Double Fake Out Foreshadowed in “The Next Doctor”**

In “Extremis,” we’ve been led to believe in the text that the part with Missy is real while the rest of the episode is part of a computer simulation.  But the subtext suggests that things aren’t the way they seem throughout the episode.  Don’t trust anything you think you see.

The 10th Doctor episode “The Next Doctor,” which I highly trust, says there is a massive double fake out going on with the 12th Doctor.  I’ve been wondering for years how this would play out, so this is really exciting for me.

In the 10th Doctor story “The Next Doctor,” Jackson Lake believes he actually is the Doctor.  Therefore, at the beginning, we along with the 10th Doctor are led to believe Lake is, as the 10th Doctor states, “The next Doctor.  Or the next-but-one.  A future Doctor anyway.”

####  **Missing Memories**

However, Lake has memories missing, like the 12th Doctor, although Lake’s memory loss is much more extensive.  And like the 12th Doctor in Season 8, Lake is searching for whom he really is.  He also doesn’t remember his wife, which is similar to the 12th Doctor not remembering Clara, his alchemical wife.  Additionally, Lake doesn’t remember he has a son until the end.  His young son is a slave, helping to power the CyberKing warship.  

Lake starts getting his memories back when the clock strikes 12.

####  **Sonic Screwdriver**

Because Lake runs around and acts like the Doctor, he certainly seems like it until Lake and the Doctor go to break into the dead reverend’s house.  The Doctor notices the tool Lake is calling a sonic screwdriver, which is our first clue that something is wrong.

> **DOCTOR** : Oh, front door. I'm good at doors. Er, do you mind my asking, is that your sonic screwdriver?  
>  **NEXT DOCTOR** : Yes. I'd be lost without it.  
>  (It's an ordinary screwdriver.)  
>  **DOCTOR** : But that's a screwdriver. How's it sonic?  
>  **NEXT DOCTOR** : Well, er, it makes a noise.  
>     
>  (He taps it against the doorframe.)  
>    
>  **NEXT DOCTOR** : That's sonic, isn't it?

I squeed in delight when the reference to “The Next Doctor” came up in “Thin Ice.”  Spider had already stolen the 12th Doctor’s screwdriver. 

> **DOCTOR** : What happened to the girl?  
>  **BILL** : Does it matter? The boy's the one with your magic wand.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Sonic screwdriver.  
>  **BILL** : How is that a screwdriver?  
>  **DOCTOR** : In a very broad sense.  
>  **BILL** : All right, how's it sonic?  
>  **DOCTOR** : It makes a noise.

So DW is showing us once again, but from the 12th Doctor episode, that the Doctor is mirroring Jackson Lake.

Anyway, Lake, not knowing he is Lake, says this whole thing started with Jackson Lake’s death.  He was a teacher who came to London 3 weeks prior and died a terrible death.  However, his body was never found.  Then, there were a string of murders and children abducted.  Lake’s death seems to bring on terrible consequences, or at least it’s the beginning of it.

####  **Fob Watch**

The 10th Doctor notices that Lake is wearing a fob watch, shown below.  The Doctor opens it, but it falls apart.  Therefore, it looks like Lake is not the Doctor.  


However, here’s the problem.  The subtext says the watch is more than it seems.  If you listen carefully before the Doctor opens the watch, there are whispering voices.  

I trust the subtext.

The presence of the voices suggests that there is a very powerful perception filter on the watch, and Lake’s Time Lord consciousness is inside.  We’ve seen perception filters used to create the illusion of a whole second floor of a building.  I’m assuming the 12th Doctor has Merlin skills, which create very strong perception filters.  Therefore, it’s possible that the perception filter makes it look like the watch falls apart (which is odd) when opened by the wrong person at the wrong time, even the 10th Doctor.  

Over the episode, Lake and the Doctor both come to believe he is not the real Doctor. 

####  **Roman Cross**

Jackson Lake, shown below, is associated with the Roman cross, a symbol of the 12th Doctor.  However, the 10th Doctor in the scene is also associated with the cross, so he is also playing the 12th Doctor.  This is just like “Extremis,” where we have one 12th Doctor who looks real and another 12th Doctor who, at the end, doesn’t.  


####  **Clara, River, Lake & Missy**

Jackson Lake’s last name is special because it’s a water term and suggests that he is related to River and Amy Pond.  In “Deep Breath,” Vastra associates Clara with the lake, so Jackson Lake is related to Clara, too.

> **VASTRA** : Well, goodness me. The lake is ruffled at last. I often wondered what you'd be like when you lost your temper.

From the Merlin legend, which we examined in [Chapter 10 of _Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8033002/chapters/20484622), both Clara and River are associated with the Ladies of the Lake.  River came out of Lake Silencio and killed the Doctor, and by Clara’s association with him, he gets trapped in the beautiful tower of the legend (confession dial castle) and dies over and over.

Since Missy was using Clara as a proxy, I see Missy as a sort of Lady of the Lake, too.  (In the same way, I also see her as a remote stellar manipulator, which refers to the Hand of Omega.)  Therefore, it’s really interesting that “Extremis” somewhat connected Missy to a lake by putting the Vault in the middle of a lake.

####  **Mercy, Missy, the 12th Doctor & Rosita**

Mercy, a possessed character, who seems very much like Missy, is shown below.  She is a dark mirror of the 12th Doctor because of the Roman cross (red arrow).  (She walks past other crosses during this scene.)  Anyway, like Missy, she seems like an evil Mary Poppins with the umbrella, although without Missy’s charm.  


Also, like Missy, she is in a graveyard and commands Cybermen, so this certainly also ties in the 12th Doctor and Danny Pink.

Later in the episode, she is the pilot of this colossal CyberKing vehicle (white arrow), which is rising above the wall near where Rosita (red arrow), Lake’s companion, is standing.  Rosita is a transitional companion, who is more proof that there is more to Lake than it seems.  Rosita is a Spanish diminutive of Rose, so Rosita is a mirror to Rose.  Not only that, Rosita has no qualms about putting Lake and the Doctor in their place, like River, Donna, Bill, and Nardole.  Interestingly, all 4 of these characters have connections to the 12th Doctor or Caecilius.  


Mercy (yellow arrow), along with several Cybermen, are in the mouth of the colossal beast.  That she’s possessed isn’t clear until the end when she figuratively wakes up, looks around, and screams.

This CyberKing vehicle, which has red eyes, is a close mirror of one from “Hell Bent,” with the Doctor (yellow arrow) being the one, along with the general, who is in the nose/mouth of what looks somewhat similar to a CyberKing-like ship (the Gallifreyan Capitol).  The 2 white arrows point to eye-like areas.  In fact, they are djinni circles, which suggests that they may be connected to the Eye of Harmony.  That’s not surprising given that the symbolism here represents the CyberKing ship from “The Next Doctor.”   And the Doctor is the pilot, the Star Whale.  


####  **Lake & His Son Are Still Prisoners at the End**

Near the end, Lake, shown below, carries his son (red arrow) through the fiery area with the Doctor (white arrow) close behind.  Check out the chain (blue arrow).  All 3 of them are prisoners, and it has nothing to do with being in the building.  This situation extends beyond this episode.  However, Lake thinks he isn’t the Doctor when the subtext says he is.  How does this stack up to “Extremis”?  Keep reading.  


Based on Lake not remembering his son until the end, this suggests the 12th Doctor doesn’t remember his own child or some other relative besides Clara.  That’s not surprising since “Time Heist” tells us that to protect people he loves, he’s forgotten who some of his family members are.  Likewise for them.

Lake suffered a fugue state, now called dissociative fugue, when he saw his wife murdered.  Some of the symptoms could describe the 12th Doctor.

[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue_state) says

> Dissociative fugue, formerly fugue state or psychogenic fugue, is a dissociative disorder.[1] It is a rare psychiatric disorder characterized by reversible amnesia for personal identity, including the memories, personality, and other identifying characteristics of individuality. The state is usually short-lived (ranging from hours to days), but can last months or longer. Dissociative fugue usually involves unplanned travel or wandering, and is sometimes accompanied by the establishment of a new identity.

The 12th Doctor was having a lot of trouble understanding whom he was after regenerating.  Can a dissociative fugue explain why the Doctor is choosing different aliases?  Perhaps.  It could also be that he’s been duplicated and looks like a schizoid man.

##  **The Computer Simulation Doesn’t Add Up, Either**

Oddities in “Extremis” don’t stop with Missy’s part, so don’t trust what you see.  If anything, just as in Jackson Lake’s case, things get weirder between the text and the subtext in the computer simulation.  For example, some things are literally upside down.  Also, the Doctor is not totally correct about random numbers.  Additionally, if he were only a simulation, I would not expect some of the symbols in the episode to show up in the simulation.  Finally, there are oddities with the Veritas and Vault, which I’ll talk about in the next chapter.

####  **Upside-down Stairs in the Library Metaphor**

We’re back to the Library metaphor just like the subtext said we had to be, and we’re in Rome too, which the subtext also said would happen.  If you missed this explanation, it’s in [Chapter 10 of _Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8033002/chapters/20484622).  I suggest, however, you start at the chapter before, which is the start of my pre-airing analysis of the clips from “The Return of Doctor Mysterio.”

Check out this image below where the stairs (red arrow) in the Library are upside down.  Notice, too, the Doctor is standing in the middle of the center circle while no one else is.  He is seriously trapped inside several containment circles, all within a djinni circle.  Bill, Nardole, and the Cardinal are also trapped.  I would not expect this if everyone is really a simulant.  


Upside-down stairs do tell us something is wrong.  This seems like the 11th Doctor’s first 2 Weeping Angels episodes, “The Time of Angels” and “Flesh and Stone,” where they jumped impossibly high up and impossibly ended up on the ceiling, which was upside down from where they initially were.  Obviously, no one jumps in “Extremis,” but the upside-down symbolism is there.  

Why would the Monks program upside-down stairs in a simulation?  It seems a very strange thing and a waste of time for the Monks to do, when there are so many more important things to program in order to run this type of simulation.  The Cardinal said the Library was designed to confuse the uninitiated, but upside-down stairs aren’t confusing to me.

I would never waste my time programming such a thing.  Unless it’s code, which is how I’m taking it.  

The Doctor, being aware of his existence, is sentient, no matter if he was real or not to start out.  

If I were him, I would make stealth clones of myself to have more Doctors working on the problem.  Then, I would find a way to leave myself clues of what is happening by changing the programming of the simulation.  This is similar to the Vardies.  They became sentient and changed the initial conditions of the programming.  

The upside-down stairs, therefore, could be clues the Doctor is leaving to tell him things are opposite to how they appear.  If that’s not the case, the stairs are at least clues for us.

Here’s one more thought about this.  If Donna, for example, can become part of the computer environment in the Library and then become reactualized at the end, the Doctor, as a sentient mind, assuming he wasn’t real to start out, might be able to become actualized, too.  On the other hand, he could very well be real to start with.

####  **Random Numbers in Computers**

The Doctor talks to Bill about computer-generated random numbers in [“Extremis.”](http://www.chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/36-6.html)

> **DOCTOR** : Computers aren't good with random numbers. If you ask a computer simulated person to generate a random string of numbers, it won't truly be random. And if all the simulated people are part of the same computer programme, then they'll all generate the same string. The exact same numbers.

The Doctor is correct that computers aren’t good with truly random numbers, unless there is a good external stimulus used for the computer to key numbers off of.  However, unless it’s a really poor simulation, he is wrong about all the computer-generated people generating the same string of numbers.  Moffat gave us the answer to the poor simulation possibility.  The Doctor already said the Monk’s simulation was too good.  Therefore, the Doctor is definitely wrong, which begs the question of why?  

Please don’t assume it’s poor writing on Steven Moffat’s part.  In order to be able to read the subtext, we should never assume things that look like mistakes are poor writing.  Typically, things that are wrong are clues.  It’s up to us to ask why they are wrong.

Anyway, if I were to program a simulation similar to what the Doctor is talking about, each simulated person would call a subroutine to generate their own random number.  Therefore, it would be unlikely, given good initial parameters, that a small group of people, like we saw at CERN, would produce any like numbers between 2 people, let alone the whole group. 

However, there are other ways characters could arrive at the same string of numbers.  For example, say the Doctor is like CAL, where his living mind has been uploaded to the computer.  Let’s say people like Bill have had their minds uploaded, too.  Or we could make duplicates of Bill and the others, so they actually are simulants.  Either way, to make the Doctor and everyone think they are simulated, all we have to do is to change people’s digitized memories from within the program to use the same random number.  Then, we tell them if they all come up with the same number, they are simulated.

The effect is the same as what the Doctor said.  However, the intent is different.  In this latter case, the Doctor would be real, but the Monks want him to have an identity crisis, making him think he isn’t.  It’s duplication and identity theft, like what was done to Prisoner 6 in _The Prisoner_.

The Doctor’s memories being affected has already happened in the subtext back in Season 9 in “The Girl Who Died,” which is a reference to the 4th Doctor episode “The Deadly Assassin.”  I’ll get to this in a few minutes because this Classic Who episode seems to be driving so much of what we are seeing and have been seeing for some time.

BTW, if we can’t change memories through computer programming, we can get Doctor Moon from the Library to brainwash people to use the same numbers.  It’s just a different type of programming. 

####  **Bill & the Oval Office**

Bill enters a door leading to the Oval Office of the President of the United States.  She is associated with a painting of a reflection of a river, so she becomes River’s reflection.  


Then, she sees the dead president, and we see her reflection in the light switch plate (yellow arrow).  Therefore, we know there is another face of Bill.  Later we see that this face of Bill is not real.  


Her mind could be real, though.  Let’s say she is CAL, who saw herself as having the body from her memories.  We know, however, that she is a mind of pure consciousness.  We could program her body to disappear like Bill’s, even though her living mind still exists.  Doctor Moon could do that.

Normally, I wouldn’t overthink this, like I am.  However, I want to show you that different ways exist to explain what is happening and have people be real.

Everything we see could be happening in a computer, like the Matrix, with living minds.  In fact, there is quite a bit of subtext to support this.  Certainly, CAL from the Library is one example, but there are plenty of others.

This is _Inception_.  If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly suggest you do.  In DW, we’ve seen dreams within dreams.  We could also be running nested simulations.  The possibilities are endless, really.  We’re back to the case of never really knowing if we are in a dream or simulation or reality.

####  **The Horse, the Man & the Architect**

Behind the Doctor in the President’s Oval Office, there is a statue (red arrow) of a rebelling horse and a man standing on the ground.  The Doctor is both the rebelling horse (the Architect) and the man from the poem in “The Beast Below.”  This is all part of the rescue plan.   


When we apply the concepts of the Architect and “Time Heist” to this situation, the Doctor here probably does not remember why he is really here because he had a memory wipe, like what happened in “Time Heist” to wipe away any guilt of robbing the bank.  The Teller could sense guilt.  

Since the Doctor is both man and horse here, I have a hard time believing he is not real.

Is this Doctor really alive but brainwashed into believing he is not?  This certainly goes along with what “The Next Doctor” subtext is saying.  We don’t have any hard proof that says the Doctor is not real.  Likewise, we don’t have any hard proof that Missy’s Doctor is real.  

Another possibility, which has support, is that the Doctor is a simulated version that has become sentient.  Gaining sentience certainly has come up many times in the subtext for years.  In the latest reference, we saw this happen in “Smile” with the Emojibots and Vardy.  In [my analysis on “Smile”](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10758735) we saw the Doctor mirroring an Emojibot, and we also saw Rory mirroring the sentient Rorybot, as an example I gave from “The Girl Who Waited.”

####  **The Eagle Comes to Abduct Ganymede**

In my [analysis of “Oxygen,”](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10951029) we looked at the Greek myth of Ganymede and the eagle.  Here’s the payoff of that.  In the President’s Oval Office, there is an eagle with outstretched talons ready to grasp something.  It’s not surprising then that the Doctor places his arm next to the bird in such a way as to make it look like the eagle is grasping him (red arrow), shown below.  The Doctor is Ganymede being abducted by the eagle.  This is a carefully crafted camera shot, where the Doctor never crosses in front of the bird or the frame of the painting, which just so happens to be a reflection of a river (yellow arrow).  


Once again, this subtext makes it really hard for me to believe that this Doctor isn’t real.  Why have this as subtext if what the Monk said was true?  Well, it could pertain to the “realest” Doctor, whoever that is.  However, I’m applying it here, especially because this is similar to what happened in “The Next Doctor.”

In the image below, the Monk, on the other hand, represents both River’s reflection (yellow arrow) and the eagle (red arrow).  Since the Monk is associated with River’s reflection, just like Bill, the Monks are more than they seem.  Keep in mind the Doctor is in a war with himself.  How does the Doctor defeat himself?  


Anyway, we are back to the Monks abducting the Doctor, which should not be surprising, if you’ve been following my analyses from the beginning.  It’s what we examined back in [Chapter 14 of _Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8033002/chapters/22674338) from “Tooth and Claw.”  The subtext in that episode shows that the Doctor is the Scottish boy abducted by monks.  

There’s also Melody Pond’s abduction by the Headless Monks.  It’s a theme.  In fact, being in the Oval Office is a reference back to the 11th Doctor episode “The Impossible Astronaut,” where we saw President Nixon and heard a little girl calling for help.  Later, we saw the little abducted girl in the astronaut’s suit.  The little girl, however, is not who we thought she was.  I started alluding to that back in [Chapter 13 of _Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8033002/chapters/20596189).  The little girl represented The Ghost and the 3 hidden faces of the Doctor.

Interestingly, in “The Next Doctor,” there is a bird that looks like the same eagle, which has outstretched talons like the one above.  This angle admittedly makes it difficult to see the whole bird.  I invite you to check out the [video of the episode](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiOivz624vUAhUM8IMKHfV_CscQ3ywIJzAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymotion.com%2Fvideo%2Fx2c107e_special-1-the-next-doctor_tv&usg=AFQjCNFGFq31Of3b5TGx7qSbNNdmiETiDw), as the eagle shows up several times, along with a second bird, which also looks like an eagle.  Anyway, the image below shows a skewed camera angle, so we know things aren’t the way they seem.  The eagle appears to either be grasping at the books, which are metaphors for River, or it’s grasping for Jackson Lake.  I could make a case for either one.  


One interesting thing about this scene is that Lake talks about children being abducted just before we see this image.

####  **The Eagle & the President**

There is a symbol of an eagle in the middle of the carpet (red arrow), shown below.  This is a metaphor for the president.  The Doctor (green arrow) is sitting in the president’s chair, making him a mirror of the president.  However, the president (yellow arrow) took his life.  
 

Before we see all this, Bill sees the news about a White House blackout where the president hasn’t been seen for at least 12 hours.  This is a reference to the 12th Doctor, or at least one of his faces, who took his/her life.  This explains a weirdness I saw earlier, which I’ll explain in a few minutes.  


The Monks said they killed the Doctor over and over, so the president’s death represents one way they’ve done it.  The Doctor has been suicidal, at times, which may well be part of the plan here by the Monks.  Make the Doctor take his own life, so he doesn’t regenerate.

The Doctor is also associated with the eagle via the flag behind him (red arrow).  He is both Ganymede and the eagle because he is the abducted child who escaped, as well as the Architect who is coming back to fix things.  


####  **2 Crosses & 2 Doctors**

Regarding the president taking his life, I mentioned something weird came up.  The weirdness came up earlier in the episode when the Doctor sat in the chair in the Veritas’ cage.  There are 2 crosses at the top of the chair (red arrows), shown below.  This was very surprising, as I expected to see 3, one for each face of the Doctor.  The President’s death could explain why there are only 2 crosses.   


Additionally, the 2 crosses matches the 2 images (red and yellow arrows) we see below once this Doctor sends an email to the other Doctor.  


The 2 crosses and these 2 images above also make it difficult for me to believe that this Doctor is not real.

####  **Hypothesis**

Right now, my hypothesis is that this Doctor in the simulation is a real living mind being put through a very elaborate fake out designed to break his spirit, very similar to what we examined in my [analysis on “Knock Knock”](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10893537) with Prisoner 6 from _The Prisoner_ series. 

What could be better for people trying to conquer Earth (also a metaphor for the Doctor) than to confuse the Doctor with what is truly real and what is fake?  Especially when he has become more vulnerable with his blindness. 

I won’t be surprised if most everything is happening within the computer.  Just envision the Doctor being CAL.  This is how I’ve been picturing this playing out for years.  All along, he’s been having problems understanding what is real and what is not, and we’ve seen that through the Great Work.  Since he is mostly conscious now, he is aware of the dilemma.  However, there is still mind control going on.

##  **_The Prisoner_** **, Mind Control & the POP Directive **

At the end of “Extremis,” the Doctor emails himself a message from within the computer simulation, which has a possible link to “Pop Goes the Weasel.”

In my [analysis on “Knock Knock,”](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10893537) we looked at one of the meanings of “Pop Goes the Weasel,” which was played at the end of the episode from the Vault.  POP was the directive to protect other people in the iconic British TV series _The Prisoner_.  The Doctor’s emailed message, shown below, basically is the POP message: “Save Them.”   


_The Prisoner_ is absolutely being referenced in Season 10.  Mind control, brainwashing, mistaken identity/identity theft, and other psychological methods are used to try to break Prisoner 6, like what is happening to the Doctor.  We may get some of our answers to whom is doing this by looking at a Classic Who episode, which has the Master framing the Doctor for murder and trapping him in the Matrix in a fight for his life.

##  **The Doctor Is So in Trouble: “The Deadly Assassin”**

In the 12th Doctor episodes, the 4th Doctor episode “The Deadly Assassin” is heavily referenced.  In fact, this classic episode is where the Master uses the word “extremis.”  

We’ve already examined numerous references to the Eye of Harmony, which first shows up in [“The Deadly Assassin.”](http://www.chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/14-3.htm)  However, there are other very important allusions to look at, which, in part, explain what we are seeing and have been seeing for some time.  The Doctor is so in trouble with Missy, especially with his blindness.

####  **What Referencing the Doctor’s Prydonian Birthright Means**

In this Classic Who episode, the Doctor receives a premonition that the president of Gallifrey will be assassinated.  And, to his horror, he will be the assassin.  He tries to stop it back on Gallifrey by leaving a note with the Prydonian Seal (red arrow), shown below.  


> **HILDRED** : I found this in the capsule.  
>  (Spandrell takes the Doctor's note and reads it.)  
>  **SPANDRELL** : To the Castellan of the Chancery Guard. I've good reason to think the life of His Supremacy the President is in grave danger. Do not ignore this warning. The Doctor. And he signed it over the Prydonian Seal.  
>  **ENGIN** : Apparently he is or was at one time a member of that noble Chapter.  

A few seconds later, Spandrell gives us some important information.

> **SPANDRELL** : He's a Prydonian renegade, sir, and as you know, when a Prydonian forswears his birthright, there is nothing else he fears to lose.

In “Extremis,” the 12th Doctor says

> **DOCTOR** : On my oath as a Time Lord of the Prydonian Chapter, I will guard this body for a thousand years.

So both the 4th and 12th Doctors have nothing left that they fear to lose.  That’s not surprising given both Doctors’ situations.  The 4th Doctor will end up being executed if he can’t clear himself.  With the 12th Doctor, we saw a never-seen-before side of him at the end of “The Return of Doctor Mysterio.”  He is really suffering from River’s death, and the subtext also suggests he’s suffering from his missing memories of Clara.  

The Doctor’s oath was very serious, and he broke it.  Uh…oh.  The consequences can’t be good, but whom does he answer to?

However, we know the rescue plan required him to break his oath.   He made multiple promises, according to “The Pilot,” so what about those?

How did the 12th Doctor get into this mess with executing Missy?  What all did Missy do because 1000 years is a long time?  How did the executioners convince the Doctor to become involved in this?  Who’s watching the watcher of the Vault?

####  **Premonition Means the Master Corrupted the Matrix**

A premonition shows up in dialogue in [“The Girl Who Died,”](http://www.chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/35-5.html) when the Doctor first sees Ashildr.

> **CLARA** : Okay, so, why are you staring?  
>  **DOCTOR** : I don't know. Nothing, probably. Too much time travel, it happens.  
>  **CLARA** : What happens?  
>  **DOCTOR** : People talk about premonition as if it's something strange. It's not. It's just remembering in the wrong direction.

This obviously is a reference back to “The Deadly Assassin,” meant to tell us Missy is probably fiddling with “reality.”  

Anyway, regarding the 4th Doctor, his note doesn’t help.  The Master frames him, making it look like the Doctor commits murder.  Then, a Time Lord tortures the Doctor, trying to get him to talk.  Spandrell stops the torture, and the Doctor talks to him.

> **DOCTOR** [on screen]: Well, this is the bit you won't believe. People talk of a premonition of tragedy, but I actually saw it happening. I saw the President die as vividly, as clearly as I can see this room now.

I find the next part very interesting.

> **ENGIN** : Precognitive vision is impossible. 

I’ve found this statement very odd given all that we’ve seen in nuWho.  How then is the Doctor able to look backward and forward in time?  Unless, that is, the Master or Missy is using the Matrix or something similar to mess with the Doctor’s mind.  This sounds like the Matrix has been corrupted.

Another possibility is that we are in the Dark Times when the old rules applied, we’ve seen several Dark Time monsters, like the spidery creature the Empress of the Racnoss.  There is certainly circumstantial evidence for this being that time period.  This is a topic for a future chapter.

####  **“The Most Dangerous Game” & the Battle in the Matrix**

The Matrix, according to “The Deadly Assassin” episode, normally contains the minds of deceased Time Lords, which actually is what we saw with the Cloister Wraiths in “Hell Bent.”

However, living minds can get uploaded.  It is clear to the 4th Doctor that a living mind is in the Matrix.  In this episode, we find out what the Matrix is 

> **SPANDRELL** : What is the Master like on mathematics?  
>  **DOCTOR** : He's brilliant, absolutely brilliant. He's almost up to my standard. What's that?  
>  **ENGIN** : The APC control.  
>  **DOCTOR** : APC?  
>  **ENGIN** : Amplified Panatropic Computations.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Brain cells.  
>  **ENGIN** : Yes. Trillions of electrochemical cells in a continuous matrix. The cells are the repository of departed Time Lords. At the moment of death, an electrical scan is made of the brain pattern and these millions of impulses are immediately transferred to the  
>  **DOCTOR** : Shush. I understand the theory. What's the function?  
>  **ENGIN** : Well, to monitor life in the Capitol. We use all this combined knowledge and experience to predict future developments.

The big “C” room of brains in TRODM certainly sounds to me like a visual representation of this dialogue above.  And this is one reason why I have believed that the Eye of Harmony is used to make predictions.

The Time Lords keep something called biog data (a.k.a, bio data) on each living Time Lord.  However, the Master deleted his.

The [TARDIS Wikia](http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Deadly_Assassin_\(TV_story\)) says:

> Spandrell and Engin cannot comprehend why there is no bio data extract for the Master in the APC Net (aka the Matrix). This is a network of past and present Time Lord minds that acts as an enormous database and future forecaster. The Doctor decides there must be an unauthorised second access point into the Matrix. The Master used this to forecast the assassination into his mind and then wipe all trace from the Matrix. He reasons that either the Master or the assassin working with him must be inside the Matrix. Despite the stern warning from Engin, he interfaces with the Matrix to find him.

This technique of forecasting could easily be used in the Test of Shadows.  Just project a string of numbers that everyone then repeats for the test.  Sadly, if this is true, living people could be taking their own lives.

Here’s the 4th Doctor below (red arrow) interfacing with the Matrix through electrodes on his temples.  The 12th Doctor could easily be interfaced to a machine like this.  


What ensues with the 4th Doctor is reminiscent of the short story by Richard Connell [“The Most Dangerous Game.” ](https://archive.org/stream/TheMostDangerousGame_129/danger.txt) If you haven’t read it, it’s a great short story.  The Master’s proxy in the Matrix hunts the Doctor as prey.  The whole scenario looks real, including the Doctor’s blood.

The Doctor gets a leg wound and says that he rejects the reality.  While the wound and blood disappear, they return right away because the Master has control of the Matrix and inserts his own reality.  As the Doctor says, he is experiencing illusions and dreams.

Outside the Matrix, the Doctor is in trouble because of the various wounds he gets, along with the hand-to-hand battle he has with the Master’s proxy in the Matrix, who is the chancellor.  The Doctor narrowly escapes really dying.  Then, outside the Matrix, the Master tries to kill him and destroy Gallifrey.

While in the Matrix, the Doctor’s body isn’t real, even though we see him as such.  It all happens in virtual reality.  If the Master wanted to, he could have the Doctor’s body disappear or someone like Bill disappear, yet Bill could still be outside of the Matrix hooked up to the machine, just like the Doctor is.

Is that what happened to Bill in the simulation?  Or is Bill really a shadow character?

##  **The Allegory of the Cave: Reality vs. Shadows**

Sadly, I had written this section months before Season 10 started, but I never posted it because it’s from my unfinished chapter on the Library Metaphor.  So here’s a small part of my Library chapter.

What’s happening with CAL and the Doctor can be partially explained through the Allegory of the Cave.  Plato wrote about this allegory of reality vs. the shadow world of the cave in his work the _Republic_.  
   
In it, a group of people have been chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, only allowed to look at a blank wall.  The hidden jailers project shadows of real objects on the wall.  The prisoners, knowing nothing else, believe the shadows to be real, so they live their lives mind controlled in a world of illusion.  They know nothing of what actually is causing the shadows.  

Plato likens philosophers to the prisoners who gain their freedom and walk into the sunlight.  They come to understand that the shadows on the wall are not reality at all.

Like the cave prisoners, CAL and the Doctor have been mind-controlled prisoners.  Doctor Moon and the Dream Lord (or someone controlling the Doctor) are the ones using dreams and other techniques to keep CAL and the Doctor unaware of the real situation.  CAL and the Doctor have been programmed, so to speak, to see only the dream world.  

Symbolically, Rory (a Dinosaur metaphor) died in a cave at the end of the 2nd part of the Silurian episode, “Cold Blood.”  (The Silurians, like Vastra, have been on Earth since the Age of Dinosaurs, and now live underground.)  After that, Rory got converted into a plastic Roman.  CAL got converted into a control node of the Library computer before her body died.  Since Rory and CAL are mirrors of the Doctor, the Doctor got converted into something, but his initial self died.  In “Deep Breath,” his mirror was a cyborg, which is what CAL is.

There is an irony, however, in the Library.  Many shadows are actually real, while the “real world” is a deception.  When the Library is under attack by the shadows, Doctor Moon tells CAL the truth that the “real world” is a lie while her nightmares and the Library are real.  Something similar is happening to the Doctor.  (Ironically, BTW, the Dream Lord’s dreams are actually very close to the truth.)  

The Doctor has to wake up fully to be rescued from his imprisoned state to save the universe.  But what is the universe really?

That begs the question: Doctor Who?  It’s the oldest question in the universe, according to the Walter Simeon’s Great Intelligence and Dorium Maldovar, the blue alien who lost his head to the Headless Monks.  If it is the oldest question in the universe, the Doctor has to be the first thing in the universe.  So what exactly is the universe?  

As far as CAL is concerned, the Library and her dream life are the universe.  After all, her grandfather built it around her to keep her entertained, so she was the first person in the universe.  In a similar way, the universe must have been built around the Doctor.

##  **The Test of Shadows & CAL**

I mentioned the shadows being real in CAL’s Library.  This actually excites me now to revisit this because I wouldn’t have mentioned this otherwise.  It does add something to the notion that the so-called shadow people in the simulations may be real.

##  **_Star Trek_** **, the Holodeck & the Matrix**

It’s clear we are in some sort of virtual reality.  The question is where?

When I saw “The Girl Who Died,” because of the premonition linking the episode to “The Deadly Assassin,” I wondered if the Doctor really was in the Matrix.

However, many ideas have been put forth over the years in the subtext (such as a computer, android, cyborg, Dalek, Matrix, Void), so I hadn’t come to any conclusions.

####  **“Under the Lake” and “Before the Flood”**

For example, just before “The Girl Who Died,” we saw “Under the Lake” and “Before the Flood,” which featured a couple of _Star Trek_ references.  In the image below, we see the Doctor once again standing in the middle of the mural of Jörmungandr on one side and a boat with the 3 crew of the original _Star Trek_ series on the other.  


The second _Star Trek_ reference is on the flood door, shown below.  1701B refers to the _Enterprise-_ B, the starship used in the crossover movie _Generations_ , which features some of the original Star Trek crew, along with the _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ crew.  In this movie, we see former Captain Kirk in the Nexus, which is an extra-dimensional realm in which one's thoughts and desires shape reality.  Time and space have no meaning, allowing one to visit any time and any place that one can imagine.  The Nexus most closely sounds like a cross between the Void in DW and the Ghost of Love and Wishes gemstone.  In the Void, space and time have no meaning.  


In the 11th Doctor episode “The Big Bang,” the Doctor flew the Pandorica into the Void to close the cracks in the universe.

####  **“Oxygen” & the Void**

We examined the opening to “Oxygen”: “Space, the final frontier.”  It’s also the first line of the opening credits to Star Trek.  The Doctor also mentions something else twice.

> **DOCTOR** [OC]: Space, the final frontier. Final because it wants to kill us. Sometimes we forget that, start taking it all for granted. The suits, the ships, the little bubbles of safety, as they protect us from the void. But the void is always waiting.

The Doctor’s use of the void is really curious here.  It doesn’t seem to be the standard astronomical usage.  A cosmic void is a large region of space that contains very few or no galaxies.  I see lots of stars in the background, so it doesn’t look like a cosmic void.  It seems unlikely that he means the Void, but it’s possible.

####  **“Extremis” & the Holodeck**

Once again in “Extremis,” we get a _Star Trek_ reference after Bill and Nardole run out of the CERN projection.

> **BILL** : They're not real?  
>  **NARDOLE** : No, no, they're holograms. They're holographic simulations. And the people in them, too.  
>  **BILL** : Sorry, what?  
>  **NARDOLE** : You know, like the holodeck on Star Trek, or a really posh VR without a headset. Through there, those places, that's basically Grand Theft Auto.

Is there really a holodeck-type simulation running?  We saw that in [“The God Complex,”](http://www.chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/32-11.htm) where the hotel with rooms containing people’s greatest fears, is actually a holographic prison.  Once the beast (red arrow) collapses, the hotel starts disappearing, until we see the hologrid and computer in the image below.  The Tivolian and Minotaur are actually real.  


This certainly could be part of the Matrix, too, and the Eye of Harmony under the floor of the Panopticon in the Gallifreyan Capitol.

Before the Minotaur dies, the Doctor translates its words  


> (The Minotaur growls.)  
>  **AMY** : What's it saying?  
>  **DOCTOR** : An ancient creature, drenched in the blood of the innocent, drifting in space through an endless, shifting maze. For such a creature, death would be a gift. Then accept it, and sleep well. I wasn't talking about myself.  
>  (The Minotaur dies.)

The Minotaur, which is a mirror of the Doctor, is talking about the Doctor.  This does suggest the Doctor is in a prison ship with a holodeck, like the _Starship UK_.  However, I haven’t seen anything definitive yet that says where he is.  Since there are multiple Doctors (real or not), he could be in multiple places, which was implied in “Extremis.”

The choice of the Minotaur goes along with the Greek story of Icarus, which we’ve seen before in our [examination of “The Pilot.”](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10695525/chapters/23688636)  The Minotaur interestingly is a hybrid, part man, part bull, whose heritage is connected to Poseidon, the Greek sea god, who is also god of other waters, of earthquakes, and of horses.  Once again, there is a connection here to the sea.

BTW, Danny Pink, after he integrates alchemically with Clara in “The Caretaker,” is associated with the flag of Bardados, shown below, which has Poseidon’s trident on it.  Therefore, the Doctor is associated with Poseidon, which goes along with fish and sea creatures symbolizing the Doctor.  


I do expect that we may see some type of sea episode, given that sea creatures are metaphors for the 12th Doctor.  Or was Loch-less as close as we get?

##  **The Matrix, Missy & the Master**

We’ve seen the virtual reality world in the Matrix data slice that Missy was uploading minds to in “Dark Water” and “Death in Heaven.”  So Missy could very well be controlling the Doctor through the Matrix, especially since Danny Pink, a mirror of the Doctor, ended up there.

On top of that, we see projections from the Matrix in “Hell Bent.”  The Cloister Wraiths are projections of dead Time Lords from within the Matrix.  However, there is something curious in the Cloisters with the Doctor and Clara.  

In the image below, the Doctor (red arrow) and Clara (white arrow) have 2 concentric, broken circles around their heads.  Also, both the Doctor and Clara have 4 crosses each on the compass points.  The circles suggest that both the Doctor and Clara are beings of pure consciousness.  The broken parts of the circles suggest that they are not trapped.  Therefore, they are either ghosts, or they are living minds inside the computer.  


If we go by “The Deadly Assassin,” Missy and maybe the Master are using the Matrix to lure the Doctor into a deadly trap.  After watching “Extremis,” Missy will most likely want revenge.  Because of the huge number of references to “The Deadly Assassin,” I’m betting she and the Master have a large hand in what is happening, beyond what we’ve examined.

BTW, in “The Deadly Assassin,” we learn a bit more about the Master’s powers.  

> **ENGIN** : What about his character?  
>  **DOCTOR** : Bad.  
>  **ENGIN** : Oh, Doctor, could you please be a little more specific?  
>  **DOCTOR** : Yes. He was evil, cunning and resourceful. Highly developed powers of ESP and a formidable hypnotist. And the more I think about it, the less likely it seems.  
>  **ENGIN** : What?  
>  **DOCTOR** : Well, that the Master would meekly accept the end of his regeneration cycle. It's not his style at all.  
>  **ENGIN** : But that's something we must all accept, Doctor.  
>  (Engin hands the Doctor a drink.)  
>  **DOCTOR** : Thank you. Not the Master. No, he had some sort of plan. That's why he came here, Engin.

The last we saw of John Simm’s Master, he was burning up his own life force.  Is he trying to steal the Doctor’s regenerations?

The Master’s ESP capabilities explain why Nardole talks about the friend in the Vault sensing the Doctor’s injuries.

> **NARDOLE** : What if you came back injured or sick? You really think our friend down there won't know that? Won't sense it? Look at me!

##  **Real Life: Some People Think We Are Living in a Simulation**

The idea of living in a simulation comes straight out of the headlines.  Several rich people have hired scientists to get us out of the simulation they believe we are in.  In fact, Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Inc. believes that life is almost certainly not what he calls “base reality.”  [Popular Science](http://www.popsci.com/elon-musk-says-we-could-be-simulation) had an article about a year ago about it.

However, whether one is living in reality vs. dreams is a very old question.  In Daoist philosophy, there is an ancient text attributed to Zhuangzi (c. 369 BCE – c. 286 BCE).  His most famous story was that he dreamt of being a butterfly.  He woke up and didn’t know if he was Zhuangzi dreaming of being a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi.


	2. 3 Masters & Is the Doctor Hurt Worse than We Think?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are even more oddities, as this chapter suggests. Plus more.
> 
> Season 10 spoiler warnings

[[For images, see my tumblr chapter]](http://tardisgirlepic.tumblr.com/post/161140941313/ch-2-extremis-analysis-doctor-who-s106-3/)

##  **More Oddities**

There are plenty more oddities in “Extremis” whether it’s the Vault, Missy, the Doctor, the Master, the _Veritas_ , etc.  Because time is short to post a second chapter, you’ll have to excuse the flow of things.  “Extremis” has so much to talk about, and I want to get at least some of this out.

##  **The 2 Liars**

Moffat has a sense of humor in the subtext. I forgot to mention something in my previous chapter that I find really amusing, which supports my hypothesis that this Doctor is real.  In the Oval Office, there are 2 chairs, one on either side of the president’s desk.  Check out the patterns in the backs of the chairs.  They are lyres, most likely a play on liars.  There also happens to be 2 Doctors, 2 crosses, and 2 images when he sends the email, too.  This Doctor is lying about whom he is.  Not only that, his faint inverse reflection shows up on the desk.  He is opposite to how he appears.  


He would have to lie, so as not to give away any plans he has.

BTW, at the end of “Oxygen,” when the Doctor is talking to Bill, we see a stoppered liquor decanter (red arrow) near the window and Beethoven.  It looks empty, but it may not be.  If it’s not, he has strong fears about what has happened, especially with his blindness.  However, emptiness represents loss of hope, which seems very likely.  He is literally running on empty, feeling like he has nothing left to give.  This certainly goes along with taking one’s life, and the suicides in “Extremis,” including the president’s.  The other thing here is the chess set (white arrow).  This is war, which is tied up with potential fears and his loss of hope.  


##  **The Master from Old**

Long before Season 10 started, I said a lot of old cast members had to come back.  I’m not surprised at all that John Simm would come back as the Master.  In fact, I expected it from the subtext, which shows some surprising things.

####  **“The Sound of Drums”**

This image below is from “The Sound of Drums,” John Simm’s first episode as the Master.  I’m not counting his previous one, “Utopia,” where he regenerated at the end.   


Anyway, check out his inverse reflection (yellow arrow).  He and the others are not as they appear.  However, something is even more curious.  Notice the little Roman columns (white arrows) above the fireplace.  This ties him to “The Fires of Pompeii” and the 12th Doctor.  It also ties him to the Library because there are 4 columns in each set.  Four is associated with the Library, I believe, because the 4th Doctor integrated with Morbius, which, I also believe, comes back to the Eye of Harmony.

We’ve seen how the Master is associated with CAL and the drums in the Library.  However, there’s a much more surprising thing, which I’ll show you in a few minutes.

This image below is another example of something not being the way it looks in this episode.  In fact, the 10th Doctor, Martha, and Captain Jack Harkness are in many skewed scenes.  This image with Jack comes from Martha’s apartment.  Here, Jack is associated with a sea turtle (yellow arrow), a 12th Doctor symbol.  He’s also associated with the 3 legs, the triskelion (white arrow), which is a symbol of the Isle of Man.  It also has more connections tied to the 12th Doctor, which I’ll explain in a few minutes.  Additionally, the red arrow points to a statue of a dancer.  The surprising thing is whom these items are associated with, besides the 12th Doctor.  


In “The Impossible Astronaut,” Amy has the same symbols associated with her on her refrigerator, except the dancer.  For that, Amy has a print of a dancer on her wall in another scene.  She also dances in “Asylum of the Daleks” when she is under the illusion that the Daleks are people dancing.  


I won’t be surprised if Amy and Jack show up.  I am expecting Amy for multiple reasons.  For similar reasons, I believe we will see other characters, like River, Clara, Rose, and Donna.  I’m expecting Susan to make an appearance.  This would be great if it happens, don’t you think?

####  **“The End of Time” Parts 1 & 2**

In “The End of Time” parts 1 & 2, the Master turns everyone into himself, except the 10th Doctor, Donna, and her grandfather Wilfred.  In these last 2 episodes of the 10th Doctor, the Master has more ties to the 12th Doctor.

Most of the scenes play out in the Library metaphor.

But there are other similarities.  For example, in this image below, one version of the Master is associated with the number 3, symbolizing The Ghost.  Other versions of the Master come out of other doors in this apartment building, but those numbers are dull, or the numbers have fallen off, leaving a faint print of the former number.  This number stands out.  


Here’s a close up of another version of the Master.  There were several, versions of him, like the one below, who are associated with Santa.  In “Last Christmas,” Santa is associated with the 12th Doctor.  In fact, Santa represents the Doctor’s psyche, which suggests the Master is part of the Doctor’s Vault metaphor, his mind.  


Here are several clones in the image below.  By turning every human into himself, he is like the Empty Child going around spreading the plague of physical changes from a template, like little Jamie did.  We’ve seen this in the subtext with the 12th Doctor, too.  


Here’s the really shocking part.  Well, it’s not so shocking since “The Deadly Assassin” is so heavily referenced, but still…  The Master is associated with the horse and rider from “The Beast Below.”  He is an architect of what is going on with the 12th Doctor.  We know Missy is an architect, too, because she was using Clara to manipulate the Doctor.  However, this image below, along with the other things I mentioned above, suggests the Master, himself, has something to do with the 12th Doctor. Notice, too, that the horse is behind bars, like the Master.  


Here’s the President of the United States below, who now is another version of the Master.  In “Extremis,” we see the 12th Doctor at the president’s desk.  In many ways, the 12th Doctor is mirroring the Master.  This begs the question of whether the Master, Valeyard, or someone has usurped the Doctor or his body.  I am sure something has been usurped because that theme keeps coming up in the subtext of several episodes.  For one, we saw it with Shakespeare’s _As You Like It_.  I’ll show you more in a few minutes.  


In yet another example of mirroring, the Master was always wanting to eat a lot because he was running an energy deficit.  The 12th Doctor is mirroring the Master by also eating a lot.

BTW, Bill in “The Pilot” says something that connects to the Master.  She is trying to talk the Doctor out of a mind wipe and says

> **BILL** : Okay, let me remember just for a week. Just a week. Okay, well, just for tonight. Just one night. Come on, let me have some good dreams for once. Okay. Do what you've got to do. But imagine, just imagine how it would feel if someone did this to you.

I found this to be really interesting because in “The End of Time” episodes, people were having bad dreams, signaling the return of the Master.  I took Bill’s statement to be a signal that the Master is returning.

In “The Pilot,” they also travel to a planet that reminds me of the Ood’s planet, which is where “The End of Time” started.

##  **The Sicilian Legend of the Triskelion & Medusa **

While the triskelion that we saw with Jack and Amy is different from the image below, there is an important connection in the subtext of multiple episodes to an associated legend.  This image from thatsarte.com is a symbol of Sicily and of the [story of Colapesce](https://www.thatsarte.com/blog/highlights/three-legged-symbol-of-sicily-trinacria/), which has a connection to the 12th Doctor.  Not only does it contain the 3 legs, but also it has the head of Medusa.  


A Sicilian boy named Nicola, nicknamed Cola, loved the sea and spent his days swimming and diving.  Because of this, everyone called him “Colapesce,” where pesce means fish.  He lived in Messina, a beautiful city in the east coast of Sicily, with his mother.  She didn’t like Cola’s habits and told him that he would change into a fish sooner or later.  

Because of the enormous amount of time in the water, his body started changing.  He became more like a fish, diving at greater depths without any effort and staying underwater for many hours.

> The boy was very popular because he helped the sailors to avoid the dangers at sea and he always came back to shore with a great story to tell about the treasures lying on the bottom of the sea.
> 
> When King Frederick II learnt about Colapesce’s extraordinary skills, he sailed to Messina to meet him off the coast. The sovereign threw overboard a golden goblet and asked the kid to dive and bring it back. Colapesce did not waste any time: he plunged, came back promptly with the precious goblet and narrated the wonderful submarine landscape he had just admired.
> 
> Impressed, the King asked the crew to sail where the water was much deeper and threw overboard his crown. It took Colapesce two days and two nights to find the crown and when he came back he told Frederick II that he’d discovered that the island of Sicily rested on three columns: the first was intact, the second was chipped and the third was about to break.
> 
> Frederick II was now even more intrigued and decided to throw into the water one of his rings. This time Colapesce hesitated because he sensed that he would not come back. At last he decided to go and said: “Give me a handful of lentils. If you see them surface, you’ll know I am not coming back”. A few days went by without any news, then the King saw some lentils and his ring return to the surface. That’s how he learned that Colapesce had decided to stay under the sea and take on his shoulders the broken column.
> 
> Ever since, whenever an earthquake shakes the island the Sicilians know that it’s the poor Colapesce being tired and moving the broken column on his other shoulder.

By the way, this ending adds support to my hypothesis that the Doctor will stay in the Library metaphor, which most likely is Gallifrey, with River and Clara helping to be the protector of Gallifrey.  He really doesn’t have to regenerate.  Just print a copy of the original.  We’ve seen how Gallifrey keep biodata on each Time Lord.

####  **Theme: People Turning Human**

One theme running through DW is that people who have turned human, like the 10th Doctor in “Human Nature” and “The Family of Blood,” end up doing cruel things that they normally wouldn’t do as a Time Lord.  So this legend very much speaks to this theme of spending too much time on Earth and turning human.

In another example out of so many, we see thisin “Planet of the Ood.”  Halpen, the man in charge of Ood Operations, was an Ood in the subtext who had become human.  Ood Sigma turned him back into an Ood, his original form.

####  **The Connection to Medusa**

The symbol above also contains the head of Medusa, who has an important place in DW.  We examined how the Daleks stole the Doctor and The Ghost before and took him to the Medusa Cascade.  The Doctor has ended up there twice that we know of like he said in “The Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End.”

Also, there is a very important connection to what is going on in “Vincent and the Doctor.”  In the image below, Vincent Van Gogh (blue arrow) is standing in front of the statue of Perseus with the head of the slain Medusa (red arrow).  Vincent is Perseus.    The monster he defeated represents the monster Medusa, who could turn people to stone. 

Of course, Medusa’s head is the symbolism of a beheading, which we’ve been seeing over and over again.  Right from the 1st episode of the 12th Doctor, “Deep Breath,” beheading was a theme.  The hot air balloon the half-faced man had was the _SS Marie Antoinette_ , referring to the beheaded French queen.  


However, Vincent’s Medusa is represented by the blind, invisible Krafayis, who, because he was afraid, lashed out and killed people.  The Krafayis is a metaphor for the Doctor along with Vincent, and both represent the 12th Doctor.

The episode shows Amy, who in the subtext is the Doctor’s Mother of God consciousness, uniting with Vincent, like the landlord’s mother united with the landlord.  The idea here is that the plague of deaths stopped in both cases.  This is another reason why I believe Amy needs to show up.  Lucy in TRODM is also a mirror of Amy, which is more subtext showing this will happen.

All of this symbolism and more going back to something in a 9th Doctor episode is why I have believed for many years that the 12th Doctor had to be blind physically at some point.  Then, when “The Return of Doctor Mysterio” showed us the red-tipped, white cane in the subtext, a symbol of physical blindness, I was pretty sure DW was going to make the Doctor physically blind.  Still, I couldn’t rule out metaphorical blindness.

How does this relate to what we are seeing in Season 10?  The subtext suggests that the blind Doctor, being the blind Krafayis, is afraid and will lash out, killing innocent people.  So the seemingly empty liquor bottle that we saw above, would seem, in this case, to also symbolize the Doctor’s strong fears.

He’s personally under assault in so many ways that we’ve never seen before in DW. 

The usurpation I spoke of, most likely, is related to the blind Krafayis Doctor mirror looking like the Doctor.  The Krafayis is a ghost and is related to the Sun stage of the Great Work and the plague.  

In fact, “The Time of the Doctor,” the last 11th Doctor episode, gives us more information.  The Doctor mirrors Tasha Lem in this scene, where both show the same significant painting behind them.  Sadly, I haven’t gotten this chapter posted, either, on Religious metaphors.  So this is a small part of that chapter.  


Here’s a better image below, showing more of the painting.  It illustrates a biblical passage.  There’s a Dalek in front of _The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple_ , a popular biblical topic among several master painters.  Francesco Solimena painted this version, circa 1725.  


This scene illustrates the biblical episode from 2 Maccabees (3:21-28), which is about God punishing the wicked and restoring the Temple to his people.  (Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox regard 2 Maccabees as canonical.  However, Jews and Protestants do not.)  

The king of Syria sent Heliodorus to seize the treasury in the Temple in Jerusalem, so the priests prayed to God for help.  God sent 3 spirits in human form.  The main spirit was a horseman, which _The Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition_ , called “the Sovereign of spirits and of all authority.”  He and the 2 younger men easily overpowered the terrified Heliodorus and his men, who all came to recognize the sovereign power of God. <http://biblia.com/bible/rsvce/2Mac3.21-28>

Heliodorus is a significant name in that it means “Gift of the Sun.”

The Sun has to die alchemically, which we’ve examined before, to stop the plague and move to the next stage of the Great Work.  This painting confirms the Sun as the usurper.  That’s not surprising, but who all is controlling the Doctor?  In the case of the Empty Child, the Chula nanogenes were controlling the plague.

##  **The Woman in the Shop**

In the Library episodes, the 10th Doctor and Donna made a big deal of the Library’s gift shop.  In fact, there’s a spot in an episode where River’s reflection shows up on the shop’s window.

"The woman in the shop" is a metaphor for Missy.  Because of the association, I have been wondering for a long time about this.  This may suggest that River is related to Missy.

What is clear from “Silence in the Library” and “The Forest of the Dead” is that River has a hidden face.  One of River’s hidden faces is Amy, another is the Doctor, himself. Does she have another?

##  **The Vault & 3 Masters**

The Vault is not as it seems.  In fact, if you look closely at the image below, there’s an inverse reflection (yellow arrow) of the Vault in the water.  Therefore, things are opposite with how they appear with the Vault.  


Several chapters back, I mistakenly said there were 44 Circles in the Squares on the front of the Vault because none of the images actually showed the top row of the Vault.  There are 46 Circles in the Squares.  That’s worth three 12th Doctors and one 10th Doctor.  However, it also looks like there are 54 Circles in the Squares on the side of the Vault.  That’s a lot of Doctors.

All of these Circles in the Squares represent alchemical integrations, like what we saw with the Doctor and Clara when they went into the Vault of the Bank of Karabraxos.  The Circles in the Squares also may indicate power.  Whatever is in there, is very powerful.

####  **3 Brainstems**

At the beginning of “Extremis,” Rafando explains how the weird setup of the technology in the image above works.

> **RAFANDO** : This technology is precisely calibrated. As you can see, it will stop both hearts, all three brain stems, and deliver a cellular shock wave that will permanently disable regenerative ability.

What I didn’t expect was 3 brainstems.  According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstem), “The brainstem (or brain stem) is the posterior part of the brain, adjoining and structurally continuous with the spinal cord. In the human brain the brainstem includes the midbrain, the pons, and the medulla oblongata. Sometimes the diencephalon, the caudal part of the forebrain, is included.”

The image below from Wikipedia shows the 3 parts of the human brainstem.  Of course, Time Lords could be different.   


However, in “The Magician’s Apprentice,” Missy made a comment about brainstems.

> **MISSY** [on monitor]: Okay, cutting to the chase. Not dead, back, big surprise, never mind. I'm in a lovely little square in one of your, oh, I don't know, hot countries. There's a light breeze coming from the east, this coffee is a buzz-monster in my brain, and I'm going to need eight snipers.  
>  **KATE** : Eight what?  
>  **MISSY** [on monitor]: Three for each heart, and two for my brain stem. You'll have to switch me off fast, before I can regenerate. How fast can you get here? Ooo, I'll need to arrange you a flight corridor.

She, of course, could be lying about having only one.  However, she may not have been at the time because there’s another possibility we’ll examine shortly.  Also, no one actually said Missy had 3 brainstems in “Extremis,” just that the equipment could handle 3.  It does leave me wondering because this is new information.

However, let’s assume that she has 3 brainstems.  For a human, that would suggest that she has 3 brains and 3 heads.  If most everything we are watching is an illusion, then it’s possible.  

In “Vincent and the Doctor,” the 11th Doctor talked about his godmother with two heads and bad breath.  It’s come up in the text before that Time Lords could end up with multiple heads.

####  **3 Masters & CAL’s Library**

However, I’ll propose something else, using the symbolic aspect of this.  Three is an important number, symbolizing The Ghost.  Interestingly, there are 3 panels on the door that Missy comes out of (red, white, and yellow arrows), so they lend support to the notion that she really does have 3 brainstems, which can also equal 3 integrations or 3 alchemical marriages, just like the Doctor.  


**Are Missy and the Master faces of The Ghost?**  
Back in [Chapter 18 of _Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8033002/chapters/23517906), we examined how Rassilon places the incessant drumbeat in the Master’s head.  And how CAL in the Library experiences toy drums beating incessantly when she’s having a meltdown.  This makes CAL a mirror of Missy and the Master, as well as the Doctor, whom we also examined as being connected to the symbolic Drum earworm in “Under the Lake” and “Before the Flood.”

For several years, when I have thought of the ghost in the 12th Doctor’s subtext, I have pictured him in the Library, just like CAL.  And the subtext says the Master is there, too, along with Missy.  CAL represents all 3 of them.  CAL is the metaphor of The Ghost.

Therefore, 3 brainstems are not a stretch at all, although the terminology is surprising to me.  This is the idea of the Holy Trinity where 3 people are One.  The Holy Trinity is very much being referenced in DW.

 **The War Doctor & the Master**  
In [_Chapter 19 of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8033002/chapters/23535186), we examined some surprising things about the War Doctor and the Master.

In [“The Sound of Drums,”](http://www.chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/29-12.htm) the Master says something surprising about the war: 

> **MASTER** : The Time Lords only resurrected me because they knew I'd be the perfect warrior for a Time War. I was there when the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform. I saw it. I ran. I ran so far. Made myself human so they would never find me, because I was so scared.  
>  **DOCTOR** : I know.

This suggests the Master is the War Doctor.

And TRODM supports this.  The Master’s wife, Lucy, was in prison for killing him, just like River was in prison for killing the Doctor.  Lucy is in TRODM because she is the Doctor’s alchemical wife = Mother of God consciousness = Amy => River.  The subtext suggests Amy is a Time Lord, living as a human.  Therefore, River represents Amy’s regeneration.  Rory is a mirror of the 12th Doctor, so this all makes sense.

In fact, I need to make a post that shows you how Grant and Lucy’s relationship in TRODM mirrors Rory and Amy’s.  I’ll show you in that post how what we think we see about Amy and Rory doesn’t always happen the way we think.

 **The Master & Missy**  
Going by all of this, the Master and Missy are faces of the Doctor.  In fact, Missy says something very curious in [“Dark Water”](http://www.chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/34-11.html) when the Doctor is trying to figure out who she is.

> **DOCTOR** : How did you get hold of Time Lord technology?  Who are you?  
>  **MISSY** : You know who I am. I told you. You felt it. Surely you did.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Two hearts.  
>  **MISSY** : And both of them yours.

Both of her hearts are the Doctor’s.  How is that possible?  I don’t believe she is lying.  This supports her being a face of the Doctor.  She also could be an identical twin.

Earlier in the episode when he first meets her, we learn something interesting.

> **DOCTOR** : Who are you?  
>  **MISSY** : I am Missy.  
>  **CLARA** : Missy?  
>  **MISSY** : Mobile Intelligent Systems Interface. I am a multi-function, interactive welcome-droid. Helping you to help me to help you.

After we learn who Missy really is, her droid comment looks like a joke.  It may be.  However, since Rory is a droid, the Doctor and Missy could very well be, too.

As you can see, what and where the Doctor is is very perplexing and intentionally so.  Putting all the pieces together is the fun of all of this.

Here’s another possibility that has plenty of support, which is further supported by the notion of 3 brainstems.  The Master and Missy are all in the Doctor’s head, like Doctor Moon is in CAL’s.  Like with CAL, we see virtual reality versions of the Master, Missy, and the Doctor.  We see something similar to the idea of nesting when Amy and Rory are in the _Teselecta_ version of Amy in “Let’s Kill Hitler.”

The nesting of one being within another is already a fact in DW.  We see it  (possession) with the Scottish young man in “Tooth and Claw,” and we see it again in TRODM when Harmony Shoal takes over a body.  

In fact, much more is going on with this type of thing.  Not only does Amy have a Russian doll (nested dolls) in her house, but also Amy and Rory show up in the most bizarre set of reflections that I’ve ever seen.  They support the nesting concept. 

In the 11th Doctor episode “Asylum of the Daleks,” where we first see Jenna Coleman, Rory has 3 reflections, 3 faces.  The center one is a ghost.  However, the really bizarre thing is where Amy’s hair is (yellow arrow).  This is saying that Amy and Rory are, in one of the faces, nested.  One being inside another.  


And nested beings come up over and over in the subtext and the text, just like CAL in the Library.  It happens when there is an integration, when people are absorbed into the system, like how CAL uploads them to her hard drive.

I don’t want to belabor the point here.  I actually could write a lot about other bizarre things in this scene, as well as the entire episode, but that’s for another post.

However, nested beings are already canon with CAL, so this could very well be the case of what we are watching with Missy and the Master.  This has already been posited in “The Impossible Planet,” where the Master is a personality inside the Doctor.

Nested beings could be physical, like in CAL’s case, or personalities of an individual, like in the Doctor’s case with the other Doctors.  We sometimes see the Doctors manifest as separate beings in a single episode.

**The 3 Masters**

Given how the subtext in multiple ways is saying that the Doctor, Missy, and the Master are related, it is suggesting that the Master is actually another version of the Doctor.  That was part of [_Chapter 19 of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8033002/chapters/23535186).  The subtext suggests that Prisoner Zero is the Master, who would be Doctor Zero.  

Here’s the kicker:

On a 24-hour clock, midnight is both 0:00 and 24:00, so the 12th Doctor is automatically ambiguous.  And we’ve already examined how the 10th Doctor at times was playing the 12th and 24th Doctors, which is also shown, for example, by the episode titled “Midnight.” 

Therefore, this all suggests that the Doctor is another versions of the Master and Missy.  

How’s that for mistaken identity, if true?

And this goes along with the Doctor fighting himself.

This is why I said in a previous chapter that I wouldn’t be surprised if a face of the Doctor was in the Vault.  After all, the Vault metaphor represents the Doctor’s mind, and all the Doctor’s are within it.

It could be any of his faces, including people like River or Clara, who have integrated with him. 

Or will DW give us someone from the past who played a previous version of the Master?  

Regardless, I am convinced from the 3-brainstem statement that there will be 3 Masters.  Will one have the 12th Doctor’s face?

##  **The Ghost & the Triad: Achieving Unity**

The Ghost is a part of a triad, a trinity, which links into the Trinity (we’ll examine that in a few minutes).  This triad shows up in “Time Heist.”  The Bank of Karabraxos is an interesting name because it has early Christian ties to the Gnostics with the concept of Abraxas.  

Carl Jung in 1916 wrote about the concept of Abraxas in [_The Seven Sermons to the Dead Septem Sermones ad Mortuos_](http://gnosis.org/library/7Sermons.htm) ( _Translation by H. G. Baynes_ )

> God and devil are distinguished by the qualities fullness and emptiness, generation and destruction. Effectiveness is common to both. Effectiveness joineth them. Effectiveness, therefore, standeth above both; is a god above god, since in its effect it uniteth fullness and emptiness.
> 
> This is a god whom ye knew not, for mankind forgot it. We name it by its name Abraxas. It is more indefinite still than god and devil.
> 
> That god may be distinguished from it, we name god Helios or Sun. Abraxas is effect. Nothing standeth opposed to it but the ineffective; hence its effective nature freely unfoldeth itself. The ineffective is not, therefore resisteth not. Abraxas standeth above the sun and above the devil. It is improbable probability, unreal reality. Had the pleroma a being, Abraxas would be its manifestation. It is the effective itself, not any particular effect, but effect in general.

I prefer to explain this visually with the _taijitu_ , which some people refer to as the yin-yang circle, shown below.  It contains more parts than it might seem.  Not only are there 2 large light and dark areas, along with 2 small circles of opposite colors, there is the black outline of the circle that contains everything.  


The concepts here mirror what Carl Jung is saying, although the _taijitu_ goes beyond what he is saying above. 

When Jung speaks of God and the devil, he is speaking of duality, along with the qualities of opposites suggested by fullness and emptiness, generation and destruction.  Interestingly, he names god Helios or Sun in opposition to the devil.  Abraxas stands above them both, as both are joined together by effectiveness.

The Sun relates to the Doctor being the Sun metaphor.  However, Abraxas stands above him.  This all relates back on a certain level to the Doctor being at the 3rd stage of the Great Work, when he needs to be at the 4th stage.  Right now, he is caught in a duality within himself.

This concept of duality matches the light and dark patterns of the Doctor’s calling card, as well as many other patterns we’ve seen.  

On the _taijitu_ , the large light (yang) and dark (yin) areas represent duality (male/female, light/dark, fullness/emptiness, generation/destruction, etc.).  The small circles within the opposite colors say that there is a little bit of the opposite within.  For example, in light there is a little bit of darkness and vice versa.  As another example, within male, there is a little bit of female and vice versa.  

The small circles could correspond to Carl Jung’s anima and animus, with the unconscious of a man being female and vice versa.  Missy, in “The Witch’s Familiar,” alluded to the meaning in a different way once the Doctor realized Clara was in the Dalek.  

> **CLARA** : Oh, Doctor   
>  (The Doctor starts to disconnect Clara from the Dalek casing.)  
>  **MISSY** : In a way, this is why I gave her to you in the first place. To make you see. The friend inside the enemy, the enemy inside the friend.  
>  **DOCTOR** : I'm sorry, Clara. I'm so sorry!  
>  **MISSY** : Everyone's a bit of both. Everyone's a hybrid.

Certainly, “the friend inside the enemy, the enemy inside the friend” could be applied to what we are seeing in Season 10.  If, for example, the Doctor does need to die to set things straight, people trying to save him is not a good thing.

Abraxas, in some ways, is akin to the outline of the _taijitu_ , which represents the Chinese word _wuji_.  This is the monist concept of limitless, infinity, the ultimate beinglessness.  The latter can be a difficult concept for Westerners.  It is the concept of Dao (a.k.a. Tao) from which duality springs.  In Daoist philosophy, _wuji_ refers to returning to one’s original nature, which is exactly what the Doctor has been doing through the Great Work.  The Ghost still needs to achieve unity and unite with the Mother of God consciousness.

Interestingly, _wu_ means nothing, nothingness, void.  If we combine the ideas of _wuji_ and Abraxas, we get an additional possible meaning of what the Doctor is saying about the void in the opening of “Oxygen.”

> **DOCTOR** [OC]: Space, the final frontier. Final because it wants to kill us. Sometimes we forget that, start taking it all for granted. The suits, the ships, the little bubbles of safety, as they protect us from the void. But the void is always waiting.

The Doctor has personified the void here, saying it is always waiting.  Given the concept of Abraxas set it above the Sun, I see this as more foreshadowing saying that the Doctor is not above receiving consequences as long as he remains the Sun.  It suggests that we may see the Doctor take on even more damage.  Or has he already that we don’t know about?

##  **Is the Doctor Hurt Worse than We Think?**

Missy and the Master may have a field day with the blind Doctor.  However, is he hurt worse than we think?  It would be just like him to conceal all injuries, unless he requires some type of help, like with Nardole.  

This does come back to Donna in “Turn Left” where alternate-Donna had to sacrifice herself to set the universe right.  Mirroring Donna, the Doctor would have to sacrifice himself, but which one is the original?  And which one is the alternate-Doctor.  Have we even seen the original one in Season 10?

Anyway, in “Extremis,” Bill followed the trail of blood, shown below, that led from the Vatican projection to the White House projection.  Since this room is part of the projection, we can’t tell how real it is.  Someone is bleeding fairly badly because there are a lot of big drops, and they are fairly close together.  The person stopped at the entranceway because there are several drops there.  It’s possible the bleeding was stopped because there are a few small drops at the entranceway, not lots of big ones.  


Where did the blood come from?  Obviously, it’s not from the cut (red arrow) above the Doctor’s eye.  There is no blood on his face.  Did he get wounded somewhere else?  


Bill did find the Doctor, but curiously, there was no blood on the eagle carpet in the Oval Office.  It’s possible the Doctor did stop the bleeding before he walked across the carpet.  It’s also possible the blood is from another version of him or someone else.

At a minimum, we have subtext proof that emotionally he is hurting a lot worse than it looks.  This doesn’t bode well because the Doctor becomes the most dangerous when he loses hope.  He’ll be the Krafayis lashing out, which is similar to how he was in “Hell Bent.”

On top of emotional wounds, the blood could be metaphorical, which, given the virtual reality, would also make sense.  It could be that the Doctor is hurt physically worse than we think.  He may not be bleeding, but instead dying slowly, which actually makes a lot of sense.  

There are more things in space that can kill besides lack of oxygen.  Radiation bombardment, for example, is a huge problem.  While we’ve seen that he can handle X-rays, the 10th Doctor took on a lethal dose of another type of radiation.

In “Extremis,” what about that reading device he used?  (This is another reason why I think this Doctor is real.)  What payment will it exact if he is real?

##  **The Real Pope Benedict IX**

Pope Benedict IX in DW has had a gender change.  The real Pope was a very controversial figure.  Coming from a powerful family, he gained the papacy with few qualifications at the age of 20 in his 1st of 3 elections.  According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_IX), 

> He is the only man to have been Pope on more than one occasion and the only man ever to have sold the papacy.
> 
> His life was incredibly scandalous, and factional strife continued.  The anti-papal historian Ferdinand Gregorovius wrote that in Benedict, "It seemed as if a demon from hell, in the disguise of a priest, occupied the chair of Peter and profaned the sacred mysteries of religion by his insolent courses." The _Catholic Encyclopedia_ calls him "a disgrace to the Chair of Peter."  He was the first pope rumoured to have been primarily homosexual.  Pope Victor III, in his third book of Dialogues, referred to "his rapes, murders and other unspeakable acts of violence and sodomy. His life as a pope was so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it."

##  **The Cage & Vault Are Mirrors**

The _Veritas’_ cage and the Vault are mirroring each other in certain ways.  The Vault supposedly contains Missy, and the cage contains the _Veritas_.  Both are under lock and key, so to speak.  

The Haereticum, where the cage is, has been home of the _Veritas_ for over a thousand years.  In comparison, the Doctor is supposed to guard Missy’s body for at least a thousand years.

Missy is in the Vault, while the Doctor is in the cage.  He is strapped in at one point.

The priest had a bunch of food in the cage, while the Doctor took a lot of Mexican into the Vault.

It is very interesting that we’ve been examining the Great Work and seeing the Doctor move from prisoner toward the truth of what’s happened, and now we have a major plot point that translates as “The Truth.”

##  **Interesting Symbols on the _Veritas’_ Cover**

Why does the _Veritas_ have a Latin title when the rest of the book is in an obscure language?  We can certainly make up a reason, but the point really is that it’s odd.  It suggests right away that something might be wrong.

The _Veritas’_ cover, shown below, is a curiosity for 2 other reasons.  First, there are leaves or perhaps, as my daughter pointed out, stitches on the cover.  Second, the red arrow points to a fleur-de-lis.  Both stiches and fleur-de-lis bring in a bunch of subtext.  


####  **Stitches on the Cover**

I love the stiches idea because those, such as the ones on the cover, are reminiscent of Mary Shelley’s _Frankenstein_.  The novel very easily has a place in DW, especially when talking about the resurrected Morbius from “The Brain of Morbius.”  Or even the scar-faced people in TRODM.  

Closer to home, the Doctor keeps talking about putting Nardole’s head back on.  This suggests that the Doctor is taking on a role in a way that is similar to Victor Frankenstein, the young scientist who performs an experiment and creates a creature, which most find grotesque.  While Nardole isn’t the grotesque one, as far as we see, it’s the symbolism that’s important.  In another example, the Doctor in THORS was pretending to be the surgeon, who, most likely, was supposed to be Solon, the Victor Frankenstein mirror, from “The Brain of Morbius.”  Then, in another example, the half-faced man, a dark mirror of the Doctor, from “Deep Breath” was also going around taking body parts.  It’s a theme.

However, it’s the grotesque Monks, who also are performing experiments.  Yet we see that there is more to them than it seems.

The stiches, then, may very well be a metaphor for elaborate experiments, and it also may refer to real body parts.

####  **Fleur-de-lis & Nardole**

The fleur-de-lis is a well-known symbol of not only France, but also of heraldry, suggesting royalty.  The most interesting part is that Nardole in THORS, as shown below, is associated with fleur-de-lis.  Therefore, Nardole is associated with the _Veritas_.  We know Nardole is a mirror of the Doctor, who is of a royal bloodline, if we go by Merlin’s pedigree, and the Prydonian Chapter is a very high-ranking class.  Also, we know Nardole is a proxy in “Extremis” for River, as he reads her words to the Doctor.  By the associations, the fleur-de-lis could represent them all.  


####  **Fleur-de-lis & the Trinity**

Not only does the fleur-de-lis suggest royalty, it is found in Christian art until about 1300.  After that, according to Wikipedia, it takes on a Marian symbolism in reference to Mary and the Trinity.  The Fleur-de-lis is used to mark the bloodline.  

Interestingly, the Doctor, near the portrait of the pope, is associated with 2 different statues of Mary.  One of them is shown below (white arrow).  I really have little doubt this goes along with the Fleur-de-lis and the Trinity.  It is said that one cannot achieve the Holy Trinity without the Mother of God because she bore the Son, so this is another reason why this is signaling that this Doctor is real.  


However, it could also mean a couple of other things.  Several chapters ago, because of the gender change, I posed the question of whether The Ghost was part of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost or it could be Mother, Daughter, and the Holy Ghost.  This particular face of the Doctor would seem to be the Mother part of the Trinity, at least that’s my hypothesis.  That would go along with Jackson Lake, looking for his son, except with a gender change probably for both.

The other question I posed was about how to classify in Jungian terms the Doctor with a gender change – being female inside and male outside.  Would he be the Mother of God consciousness from the Great Work or the male equivalent of the Christ or Buddha Consciousness?  I said I’d stick with him being the Christ or Buddha Consciousness until I saw proof that this should change.  This may be the proof.  It would mean that instead of looking for his Mother of God Consciousness, he would be looking for the male counterpart.  That’s at least another hypothesis, although I don’t weight this highly without more information.  I’m still evaluating what the gender change means.

One thing seems very likely.  The fleur-de-lis on the cover of the _Veritas_ refers to the Doctor and his bloodline.  It’s highly likely because the one big obstacle to any invasion of Earth would be the Doctor.  

##  **Why CERN?**

CERN seems like a strange place to send the _Veritas_ , at least to me.  CERN does research into various things, like creating particles, plasma, and mini black holes.  The detection of mini black holes could indicate parallel universes in extra dimensions.  Certainly, particle physics has a lot to do with DW and time travel.  But the importance of the reference pertaining to the actual function of CERN doesn’t seem important to me.  However,…

The answer is probably that the novel _Angels & Demons_, by Dan Brown, involves antimatter created at the LHC to be used in a weapon against the Vatican.  Dan Brown also wrote _The Da Vinci Code_.

However, in “Extremis,” being things are backwards, a weapon of mass destruction is sent from the Vatican to CERN.  Where would CERN employees get their hands on explosives like those in the image below?   


Explosives like these are a metaphor for the 7th Doctor’s companion, Ace.  I also believe she might show up.  In fact, this very much reminds me of [“The Curse of Fenric.”](http://www.chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/26-3.htm)

> **ACE** : Oh, thanks. I don't know why he used a chemical grenade. If I was him, I've have stuck a few sticks of explosives under the table.  
>  (They look under the table and sure enough - there are the sticks of dynamite and a dangling detonator pin. The Doctor grabs Ace's arm and they run out of building 48, throwing themselves over some sandbags just as the whole building goes KaBOOM!)

This is also a metaphor for Fenric and the curse that we saw was part of Clara and the Doctor’s relationship.  We examined that in [Chapter 16 of _Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8033002/chapters/23325488) _._

##  **Crime Scene Images Not Right**

When the Cardinal and Pope (the actor was the Italian father in “Turn Left”) are talking about the suicides, images flash by.  Some of them show us there is something wrong.  Here’s an image of the Italian police, which I would expect.  


However, there are 2 images out of about 11 that don’t make sense interspersed in the Italian images.  One of these is below.  The police tape is in English.  Later, we also see another image of a gun in an evidence bag that is also in English.  We know that something isn’t right here, and it says that we can’t trust what we see.  


##  **The Doctor’s Desk**

Oddly, the Doctor’s desk got turned.  We can see the inverse reflection of the light on the TARDIS, so things aren’t as they seem.  Interestingly, we haven’t really seen River’s and Susan’s photos since “The Pilot.”  We don’t even get hints of them here.  


I’m wondering if that’s because River and the Doctor are now integrated.  Back in “Smile,” there was a reference to “The Wedding of River Song.”  Therefore, following the conventions of integrations, River’s image should now be in a Circle in the Square type of frame, not the square-ish frame that we saw.

**Author's Note:**

> I want to make this meta series as clear as possible, so if it’s not, please let me know.
> 
> Check out my [meta archive on Tumblr](http://tardisgirlepic.tumblr.com/meta-archive) for images


End file.
